A review by monasterymonochrome
An Obedient Father by Akhil Sharma

3.0

I had a longer review here that Goodreads ate, and I don't feel particularly like trying to write it all over again. In short, this book was much darker and more brutal than I was expecting, but it deals with its difficult but important themes in a compelling way, and Sharma's unornamental, straightforward prose makes it easier to swallow as a whole than it might be otherwise. I was also impressed by what he achieved in the characters of Anita and Asha. He was able to portray the very real and devastating effects of trauma and grief on them while also making them come alive as people who are shaped by things other than being victimized. Unfortunately, I was less sold on the character of Ram, whose motivations and actions never really made sense to me; besides that, I often felt like Sharma was using his first-person narration to force me to sympathize with him when he deserved very little (if any) sympathy. I was also underwhelmed by the ending. To me, it seemed like Sharma didn't really know how he wanted to wrap things up and so tacked on a disjointed final chapter in third person that didn't particularly fit or feel satisfying. I think it should have just ended with the chapter before.